Cancer patients could be denied drugs paid for by a special £200
million-a-year fund, when it expires at the end of the year, MPs warn today
(Wed).

They face a “cliff edge” situation when the Cancer Drugs Fund ceases to operate, said members of the Health Select Committee.

To date some 25,000 people have benefitted from the fund, David Cameron’s personal brainchild, since it was introduced in 2010.

It enables them to apply for treatment with drugs that have either not yet been given the green light for NHS prescription by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), or have been turned down on cost grounds.

Chris Skidmore, a Conservative select committee member, said: “The Coalition has put a lot aside for the Cancer Drugs Fund and in doing so has raised significantly patient expectations.

“I think a significant problem will occur when the public do not recognise that this fund is temporary.

“We could have what effectively is a clinical cliff edge in January 2014, between the end of the Cancer Drugs Fund and the adoption of value based pricing.”

Stephen Dorrell, the Conservative committee chairman, expressed concern that current patients faced the prospect of drugs being taken away from them.

Future patients could see drugs that were benefitting today’s patients "simply being withdrawn", he warned.

The fund was only ever meant to be temporary. A new system of agreeing drug prices with pharmaceutical firms, called value based pricing, is due to come in next January. Ministers believe this will be more flexible than the current arrangement, doing away for the need for the fund.

But select committee members remain unconvinced.

In a report about Nice, published today (Wed), they describe value based pricing as a “nebulous concept” which will have only “modest implications”.

The Department of Health already negotiates with drugs firms to agree prices, they note.

Mr Skidmore said the Government needed to “set out as soon as possible” what the effective replacement for the Cancer Drugs Fund would be.

The committee is also concerned that the fund is not being properly assessed.

In evidence to the committee, Professor Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, admitted “we don’t have the data” on how much benefit it had brought.

Valerie Vaz, a Labour member, said: “I hope there’s something in the Department of Health where they are measuring whether these drugs have been helpful.”

The committee also asked why cancer had been singled-out for extra drugs cash, recommending that if there was “clear evidence of beneficial outcomes” then something akin to the fund should be “applied to treatments for conditions other than cancer”.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We will ensure arrangements are in place to protect individual patients who are receiving treatment with drugs funded by the Cancer Drugs Fund as the end of the fund approaches.

"We will respond fully to the Health Select Committee’s report in due course.”